Nostalgia

Our run Feb. 5.

Today was the first 12-mile run of the season. It started to rain/snow toward the end and I could literally feel bits of ice bouncing off my face...


Oh wait... that's just what I was longing for... weather like that on Feb. 5 when we were in the same point in our training for our spring marathons. Seems like forever ago!


Today was a far different story. Accuweather had a giant heat advisory for the entire day. The started us out early, at 6:30 (which put my wake-up call at 4:45), and even then the humidity was around 90 percent.


I've never done well in the heat. Thanks to the MIT coaches, though, I was prepared for today. They sent us emails all week about dealing with the humidity. Here are some of the things I did:

• Drank lots and lots and lots of water yesterday and this morning 
• Brought extra nutrition (for 12 miles I used a Gu and a pack of Sport beans)
• I've been eating bananas all week
• Extra carbs and salt yesterday
• I made sure to stand outside to get acclimated before running
• Wore my monitor and kept an eye on my heart rate the entire time
• Dumped cups of water on myself at the water stops.

I survived! The first two miles were the toughest (and also uphill), but then I settled in on the shady trail. I've been struggling with shin splits lately, they hurt the first two but then eased off. After I changed I wrung my clothes out in the sink! Grossness! 

This was one of those days I definitely couldn't have survived without MIT and the 10:30 pace team. I know 12 miles was where I broke down trying to run on my own so for some reason I always get nervous before this run. 


(Why is this in a different font. Arg. Whatever, it's nap time, I'll fix it later.)

MIT run: 12 miles!

Edit: I lifted this picture off of Fleet Feet's Facebook page.
Pretty crazy!

Ran 12 miles this morning through the streets of Worthington, which beat my old record of 11. And I'll be beating it again, and again, and again, until race day.

What a morning. Today was all about toughing it out. 

I almost didn't go. My stomach hurt when I got up, probably from eating too much Trader Joe's pesto tortellini. I've had cold symptoms on and off all week. But I'm glad I got my lazy butt out of bed (partially thanks to a redheaded greyhound who really had to pee). 

We usually run on the bike path but I guess it wasn't in great shape with all the ice, so we ran through Worthington neighborhoods. Those poor people, living on a quiet backstreet in suburbia, suddenly have 500 people coming through. Two kids were staring at us out their bedroom window. One guy was trying to back out of his driveway and was getting very irritated.

The run went very well, went with a good group of people as always. It started to rain/snow toward the end and I could literally feel bits of ice bouncing off my face. The ninth mile was the toughest, especially since we ran past the school where we started so it would have been so easy to just cut it short. Then the last two I was just on auto pilot.  

(Ok, I just bolted off the couch to grab my phone, literally every muscle I have protested). (continued)